Public Comment

In a plague year that's already assailed us with pestilence and flame, election season unleashes further nightmares. In Washington, D.C., and red-state capitals, repudiated Republicans' arrogance is on full, breathtaking display. They're poised to steal a second election-year Supreme Court seat. They’ve internalized overlord Vladimir Putin's tactics toward stealing a second presidential election. And they’ll disenfranchise as many voters as they can to hold onto doomed Senate seats. If you're awake and have a conscience, it's easy to figure out the top of your ballot. 

But if you're awake and have a conscience, it's hard to avoid also recoiling at the petty arrogance of officeholders closer to home. City and county incumbents propose to raise regressive taxes in a depression – a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad move that prolonged the 1930s' Great Depression. And while the public suffers in a city hollowed out by UC's shutdown, Berkeley's Mayor and Council propose to substantially increase their own salaries. Using tactics worthy of Mitch McConnell, our alleged Sacramento representatives have spent their whole term trying to destroy local governments – notably, Berkeley's – while avoiding any uncontrolled public appearances in this city they’re supposed to represent. 

Why such arrogance? Because with only one credible major party, we lack a competitive political marketplace. Fellow Democrats won't challenge incumbents because that’s political suicide. So incumbents' incentives are all about groupthink, glad-handing, and taking liberties. Aspiring officeholders zip their lips and fall in line with the higher officials they hope to succeed, no matter how bad the incumbents' ideas. 

Without great choices, it's up to us, folks. To ignore endorsements and fashions, and to carefully consider which candidates and ballot-measure positions make the most sense and promise the greatest public benefits. In some cases, to cast a protest vote for the only challenger available – simply to remind a supremely arrogant and remote Sacramento incumbent about the first two words in "public service." 

Conversely, there's the late Maya Angelou's sage advice: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Several candidates challenging really good local incumbents are transparently stalking horses for better-funded Council rivals, luxury-housing developers, and other outside interests. Your ballot is a chance to reward the officeholders who've demonstrated responsiveness to you and your neighbors. 

So, here's a brief ballot guide designed for fellow voters who are ready to join us in thinking independently, and in sending a message about good governance and basic respect for the governed. 

National Offices: 

• President & Vice President: Joe Biden & Kamala Harris. No fooling around on this line – not this time!
• California Congressional District 13: Barbara Lee.

• Mayor (ranked-choice): 1. Aidan Hill, 2. Jesse Arreguín. Run up some votes for Hill, whose quirky campaign of idealism, accessibility, and optimism reminds us of Jesse 2016. Arreguin has governed decently, but has turned into the Machine politician he replaced. He now champions the big stupid greenwashed “infrastructure” projects that enrich public-works contractors – by digging up the city for years – but endanger and obstruct everyone else. He manufactures consent on the Council by twisting colleagues’ arms. He’s appointed unqualified commissioners and endorsed unqualified candidates, to please constituencies and spite rivals. The halo’s gone. Do not rank Wayne Hsiung, an angry animal-rights extremist who’s running a bizarrely well-funded campaign around a bizarre platform. Hsiung faces some 17 felony charges for animal "liberation" stunts. We’ve got enough officeholders who flout basic laws already, in the White House.
• City Council, District 2: Cheryl Davila.
• City Council, District 3: Ben Bartlett.
• City Council, District 5: Sophie Hahn.
• City Council, District 6: Susan Wengraf.
• School Board, 2 open seats: Laura Babitt is the best-prepared to narrow the District’s achievement gap. José Luis Bedolla is the only candidate with a message about academic rigor and expanding District resources for all kids. Beware of better-funded, widely endorsed candidates who articulate little or no vision for our kids’ education.
• Rent Board: Right to Housing Slate (Leah Simon-Weisberg, Mari Mendonca, Andy Kelley, Dominique Walker, Xavier Johnson)

• California State Senate, District 9: Jamie Dluzak. Send the incumbent a message about peak arrogance.

• California State Assembly, District 15: Sara Brink. Send the incumbent a message about peak arrogance.

• Alameda County Measure W: NO. Don’t raise regressive sales taxes in a depression. This deceptive measure would subsidize all county spending – including Trump-supporting, ICE-loving Sheriff Gregory Ahern’s bizarre, massive expansion of Santa Rita Jail. (While crime rates fall and de-incarceration is everyone else’s priority.)
• Alameda County Measure V: Vote your conscience. Extends a tax Berkeley doesn’t pay.
• Berkeley Measure FF Vote your conscience. Fire/emergency services are important, but a need for a higher tax would be more credible if the City Council hadn’t bundled this with the ridiculous tax measures below.
• No on Berkeley Measure GG: No. Nuisance tax that nickel-and-dimes ride-service users, while doing nothing for Lyft or Uber drivers (for that, vote no on state 22) or taxi drivers.
• Berkeley Measure HH:: NO. Don’t raise regressive sales taxes in a depression. This deceptive measure would subsidize all of Berkeley’s General Fund. If any funds were really used for a new City climate bureaucracy, expect wasteful virtue-signaling with no climate impact. Look at the City’s poorly designed bike “infrastructure,” which has gotten only a single-digit % of a university town’s commuters onto bikes. Look at countywide EBCE’s utter failure to deliver green power at remotely competitive rates.
• Berkeley Measure II: Yes.
• Berkeley Measure JJ: NO. Don’t raise Council/Mayor salaries while everyone else is suffering. Some devoted elected officials do hard, full-time work on part-time salaries, but this is just tone-deaf. Without term limits, high salaries would just entrench incumbents and attract careerists. Don’t bury Berkeley’s valuable tradition of part-time, citizen legislators, who hold regular jobs and experience what their constituents suffer through.
• Berkeley Measure KK: Yes.
• Berkeley Measure LL: Yes.
• Berkeley Measure MM: Yes.

• Prop 14: Mild no. The state’s previous stem-cell research funding was a stopgap to replace federal funding, which has since resumed. Previous promises haven’t been met, and with a destroyed state budget, this is a bad time to pile on earmarked commitments.
• Prop 15: YES. Protect homeowners, but adjust commercial property taxes to realistic levels.
• Prop 16: Yes.
• Prop 17: Yes.
• Prop 18: No. Stop messing with the age of majority, on both sides. We believe in drinks, votes, and tokes at 18 – the age of eligibility for military service.
• Prop 19: No.
• Prop 20: No.
• Prop 21: YES.
• Prop 22: No on Uber’s/Lyft’s attempt to deny benefits to their drivers.
• Prop 23: No on round three of the SEIU’s war against two dialysis providers. Spunky union, but abuse of the referendum process. We’re voting with the doctors and nurses who warn about reduced access.
• Prop 24: NO on this fake “privacy” law, opposed by ACLU, Media Alliance, and Consumer Federation of CA. It’s a toxic brew of complexity, special-interest privacy rollbacks, and deception, sponsored by one real-estate mogul. Swipe left.
• Prop 25: No. Transferring bail decisions from judges to computer algorithms is a dystopian sci-fi nightmare. ACLU’s neutrality speaks volumes.

• AC Transit Board of Directors, Ward 1: Joe Wallace. He’s effectively protected riders’ interests, and has saved Berkeley bus lines threatened with elimination. He’s challenged by a scooter executive, and by a career politician who’s not focused on riders. There’s no case for change here.
• AC Transit Board of Directors, Ward 2: Greg Harper. He’s been a decent, stable director. Challenged by a scooter executive/lobbyist. There’s no case for change here.
• AC Transit Board of Directors, At-large: H. E. Christian Peeples. Automatic for the people, over many years of expert and dedicated service.
• BART Board of Directors, District 7 Sharon Kidd. Send a message to incumbent Lateefah Simon – an admirable person who’s failed to lead in this role, especially on rider safety.
• East Bay Regional Park District Board, Ward 1: Elizabeth Echols, reluctantly. She’s a longtime corporate-Democrat apparatchik, eyeing higher office. But she’s served well enough here to be endorsed by all her fellow board members. Challenger Norman LaForce is a passionate Sierran, but a longtime enemy of park access for dogs and bikes.

• Superior Court Judge #2: Vote your conscience. Elena Condes has many more endorsements. But at forums, Mark Fickes has seemed a better listener and more thoughtful – traits you’d want in a judge. There’s controversy over his “civil rights attorney” ballot designation (he’s a former SEC prosecutor who’s now a defense lawyer). We’d really like to see more judicial temperament on both sides of this race, which is being waged mostly on identity politics.
• Peralta Community College District Board of Directors, Area 1: Jeff Heyman.